About the Authors

Robin Black’s first book If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This will be published in seven countries and translated into four languages. A graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program, she is currently on work on personal essays and a novel.

Philip Bryant teaches at Gustavus Adolphus College. He has poems in The Iowa Review, The Indiana Review, The American Poetry Review, and Nimrod. His work includes Blue Island, a chapbook of his poetry; Sermon on a Perfect Spring Day; and two short biographies on Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. His latest work is Stompin’ at the Grand Terrace with accompanying CD, featuring jazz pianist and composer, Carolyn Wilkins.

Tracy Daugherty is the author of four novels and four short story collections, including One Day the Wind Changed. He has published a book of personal essays, and in 2009 his biography of Donald Barthelme, Hiding Man, was a New York Times Notable Book. The recipient of fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation, he is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at Oregon State University.

Elizabeth Eslami has published stories in over a dozen literary journals, including G.W. Review, Bat City Review, Minnesota Review, and Crab Orchard Review. Her debut novel Bone Worship received rave reviews in Library Journal and Booklist, and Eslami has been called “one of the freshest new voices in literature.” She lives in Eugene, Oregon.

Mary Stewart Hammond’s poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, and many other publications. Her award winning collection Out of Canaan was published by W.W. Norton. She teaches master classes in poetry at the New York Writers Workshop.

Robert V.S. Redick authored four epic fantasy novels known collectively as The Chathrand Voyage. His unpublished novel, Conquistadors, was a finalist for the 2002 AWP/Thomas Dunne Novel Award. His essay “Uncrossed River” won the 2005 New Millennium Writings Award for nonfiction. His story Palpable was a finalist for the Glimmer Train Short Story Award, 2003. He lives in rural western Massachusetts with his compañera, Kiran Asher.

Marjorie Sandor is the author of Portrait of my Mother, Who Posed Nude in Wartime, 2004 winner of the National Jewish Book Award in Fiction. Her essay collection, The Night Gardener: A Search for Home, won the 2000 Oregon Book Award for Literary Nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, The Georgia Review, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere. She teaches Creative Writing at Oregon State University.